It's a small window into a new realm. People walking by certainly think it's odd. Perhaps it is, but i'm continuously surprised how delightful it can be. There are surreal pictures around us all the time. It's not just the reflection, although that's important-- It's about the mirror's locale, and the irregular juxtapositions of image and ground.

I used to create these segues and transitions in the darkroom. Schooled on the surrealism of Uelsmann, i used to take pictures only to isolate elements for darkroom re-mixing, but i stopped doing that a few years ago. It was fun darkroom work, but it was uninteresting to me once manipulations were digital. But that's where these were particularly fun: not constructed by me in a lab or with a computer, these were natural superimpositions of images and textures.

Puddles are unusual and irregular mirrors on the ground. As mirrors they are inferior to lakes or pools, but that's what makes them unique. Sometimes small, they can still reflect the whole world if you move slow enough. They are reflective and a little transparent. And while puddle reflections are a bit hackneyed, there was something in this exploration that felt fresh and continues to call me forward. They were magical and dreamlike without Photoshop or brute force. At times i'd look into a dirty puddle on the side of the road, and i'd swear i could see stars.